Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
COPTRIGHT. 1899, BY FoRBST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
''^''''''^s^^uo.rnlir^''^''-} NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1899. {uo.Ao'^^ri^^^^fYo.. 
CDe forest <ina Stream Platform PlattK. 
*'TAe sale of game should be forbidden at all seasons ^ 
— Forest and Stream, Feb. 3, 1894. 
"SAM'S BOY." 
In our issue of Dec. 2 will be begun the publication of a 
new series of "Danvis" chapters by Rowland E. Robinson, 
telling how Sam Lovel's boy acquired the "art of being 
a boy." 
BRITISH FOX HUNTING. 
A REVIEW of the fox hunting situation in England, with 
a list of hunts, towns convenient to the hunting grounds, 
the number of couples of hounds kept by each hunt, their 
masters, huntsmen, whips, kennels, hunting days, etc., 
jjublished in a recent number of the London Field, shows 
that the so-called "sport of kings" is in a gratifj'ingly 
sound and flourishing condition. Few American sports- 
men have any adequate conception of the magnitude of 
the fox hunting interests in England, of the vast sums of 
money expended in maintaining them, and of the general 
agreement everywhere there as to what constitutes the 
ethics of the sport. Old family packs, which have been 
kept up to a high standard of efficiency through many 
generations, are still preserved intact, and a number of 
new packs have been established. In the readjustments 
for the present year, such vacancies as have occurred in 
the masterships have been promptly filled, there always 
being others ready and competent to take the place of 
those who retired. 
Some of the fox hunting statistics will give a partial 
idea of the magnitude of the sport in Great Britain at 
the present day. Of stag hoimds, there are in England 487 
couples, and of these the Devon and Somerset Hunt have 
fifty couples, the greatest number used by one hunt. The 
master of them is the Earl of Coventry. To Ireland 
III are credited; while Scotland has none. 
In foxhounds the greatest numerical strength appears, 
there being 6,215 couples owned by the different hunts in 
England, and of these the Blackmore Vale Hunt leads in 
the number owned, ninety couples being credited to it. 
Scotland has relatively the insignificant number of 36s 
couples, fifty-seven of which belong to the hunt of the 
Duke of Buccleugh. Ireland has 895 couples, the Meath 
Hunt owning the greatest number of couples — sixty-four. 
Harriers are also strong in numbers, but they vary a 
great deal in size and -sortiness," as a general resem- 
blance in type and breed characteristics is termed. They 
are classified as Stud Book, cross-bred, pure, modern, 
Welsh, mixed and old English harriers, and dwarf fox 
hounds and Southern cross, harriers with fox hound 
cross, harriers and beagle cross, black and tan and Old 
Southern, harriers and small fox hounds, the extreme 
variation in height of the packs enumerated being from 
sixteen to twenty-eight inches. Of this very variable 
lot, classed as harriers, England has 2,025 couples ; Scot- 
land, the small number of sixty-seven couples ; and Ireland 
has 391 couples. 
As to beagles, they seemingly are out of favor in Ireland 
and Scotland, no packs being credited to those countries, 
though England has of them 746 couples. 
Thus the list gives the large total of 11,302 couples of 
all kinds of hounds used in packs, and affords data from 
which to gain an idea of the magnitude of the fox hunting 
interests which are maintained by the sportsmen of Great 
Britain. These packs are hunted from two to four days 
a week in proper season, as a general rule, and this in 
.turn necessitates the maintenance of large stables of 
horses to properly mount the master, huntsmen and whips 
of the various packs. Frequently, when hunting, one or 
two horses are held in reser\^e for them. Many such 
stables have from fifty to one hundred horses. 
A notable featurg of the sport is the sustained and en- 
thusiastic interest anfi active participation in it by its 
devotees from youth to advanced age. The passing of the 
years neither lessens their hunting ardor nor impairs 
their stamina and dash in the difficult cross country riding 
after the swift hounds. A case in point, one of many, is 
that of Mr. John Crozier, Master of the Blencathra Hunt 
at present, as he has been for the last sixty years, he 
succeeding his father aS Master in 1839 ; at his age, men 
are more prone to the telling of what they have done than 
to be up and doing with the best in the activities of 
spoft ■ , : 
Wire fencing in a number of sections of Great Britain 
oft'ers a serious modern problem for the hunters, for it 
interferes to a serious extent with the riding and best en- 
joyment of the sport. A long purse, however, is a 
great aid in such matters, and it is suggested that the 
hunts pay for the taking down of the wire fences in the 
fall and the putting up of them in the spring. There is 
less of friction between farmer and hunter in England 
than there is between the same classes in America, though 
when crops are ridden over in the former country, which 
is not a common incident, there is likely to be dissatisfac- 
tion at the act. Still no class is more opposed to unneces- 
sary damage to the farmers' interests than are the hunters 
themselves. 
The foregoing will give the American fox hunter a 
general idea of the high degree to which fox hunting is 
organized and specialized in Great Britain, and the dis- 
tinct manner in which it is conducted as compared with 
fox hunting in America. From the breeding and weeding 
out of the packs with a view to secure good voice, uniform 
speed and "sortiness," to the breeding of hunters which 
are weight carriers, jumpers and good runners, every de- 
tail of it has strict attention ; but while England may sur- 
pass America in the matter of equipment as it pertains to 
fox hunting, it cannot surpass us in the matter of enjoy- 
ment. 
A TYPE THAT HAS PASSED. 
The rhyming story concerning old John Nelson, 
printed in our issue of Oct. 28, recalls a picturesque fig- 
ure of old times who may have been familiar to many of 
our Western readers. Whether the story told is actually 
true or not makes little difference. It might have been, 
and it is certain that John Nelson bore , the reputation, 
which he deserved, of taking great delight in imposing 
on people. Even now it is difficult to restrain a smile 
when we recall one of his methods for astonishing those 
who did not know him well. He would appear to be 
seized with a violent fit of coughing, which would end 
by his blowing from one of his nostrils a bullet, and 
as he picked this up from the grond and held it in his 
fingers, looking at it, he would gravely tell the bystander 
that this ball had been in his head since 1856. Those who 
had much association with him have seen him produce 
that bullet in just that way a dozen times. 
John Nelson was an old-timer and probably was on the 
plains nearly twenty years before the coming of the rail- 
road. His wife was an Ogallala Sioux woman, and his 
children probably now live on the Pine Ridge reserva- 
tion. He was a fairly g'ood example of the old-time 
mountain man, slightly modified, of course, from the 
types of which we have examples in those delightful books 
on the old West written by Ruxton, Garrard, Kendall, 
Gregg, and later by Parkman. 
Most of these old-time mountaineers .were mighty men 
of their hands, reckless, daring, and withal so trained in 
the outdoor life of mountain and plain that they were as 
crafty as the panther and as astute as the savage. In their 
dealings among themselves' and with their employers 
tliey were usually honest and honorable, but they pos- 
sessed a keen sense of humor and delighted in "fooling" 
the pilgrim, whose newness to the West made him in- 
credulous concerning many strange matters which to 
them were commonplace, and whose thirst for informa- 
tion led him to ask what they termed "fool" questions. 
Old Jim Bridger was typical of this class, and perhaps 
the best known: another was Kit Carson, who received 
so much newspaper notoriety; but neither of these was 
any better equipped for living his life than hundreds of 
others whose names have seldom or never been heard of. 
Another contemporary of Bridger, who recently died, 
and was as good if not a better man, was old Jim Baker, 
who passed his last days on Snake River, in northwest- 
arn Colorado. 
Many of the mountaineers devoted the earlier years of 
their life in the far West to trapping the beaver. Later, 
when the beaver became scarce and its fur ceased to be 
fashionable, they developed an adaptability in other direc- 
tions. Some became guides and scouts at army posts, 
leading through unknown regions small bodies of troops 
engaged in mapping new territory, or guiding and scout- 
ing for other commands of troops in the Indian wars of 
the times. Others still took service with the different 
traders, who had already pushed their stores far out into 
the Indian cowntry, and collected furs for their employers. 
Loading with trade goods his wagon hauled by bulls, and 
taking with him his Indian wife and children, the soli- 
tary trader journeyed over the country in search of the 
camps of friendly Indians. When he entered such a 
camp, he took up his residence with some chief or prin- 
cipal man, and from his lodge traded his goods for robes 
and furs or dried meat. The lives of these wandering 
traders were full of incident, yet very little concerning 
them has a place in literature. Even the fact that they 
once existed as a considerable class has been forgotten, if 
it was ever known. Yet their doings are truly a part of 
the history of the old West, and for that reason deserve 
to be recorded, though indeed it is now almost too late 
to gather from original sources the material for such a 
volume. Perhaps some of this history may find a place 
in the promised vohmie of Mr. Ripley Hitchcock's "Story 
of the West," which is to be devoted to the trapper. 
Of the men who took part in that old life, which to 
commonplace dwellers in the East, and in the present 
West, for that matter, would now seem so marvelous if 
the half of it could be told, a few of those still living may 
be recalled by name. Old Bill Hamilton was recently 
liAdng on the Stillwater, in Montana; John Baker, a 
brother of Jim, lives, or did very recently, on Snake River, 
in northern Colorado; Wm. Rowland, who was with Gen. 
Stansbury when he surveyed the Great Salt Lake about 
1850, lives on the Muddy, in Montana; Henry Choquette, 
employed by the American Fur Company on the upper 
Missouri River in 1844, and John Monroe, who was reared 
in the Piegan camp, live in northwestern Montana. A 
few others of more recent date occur to us, but they are 
very few. 
When it is remembered that the old-time West disap- 
peared forever twenty years ago, it is not strange that 
but few of its heroes are left alive to-day. Their lives 
were full of danger and hardship, yet though frequently 
engaged in fights with the Indians, and even some- 
times quarreling among themselves, these dangers did 
less, to thin their ranks than hardship and exposure, which 
oftentimes shortened their lives and caused their death at 
a comparatively early age. The period at which they 
chiefly flourished was from 1835 to i860, and to-day one 
may count almost on the fingers of one hand the men of 
his acquaintance who yet survive from that period. Even 
these are growing old and in the natural course of events 
must soon pass away. When the last of them shall be 
gone, the sole living links which bind the present to that 
heroic past will have been broken, and the prowess of the 
men of those ancient days will be but a memory indeed. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
A fact of exceeding interest in its bearing on fishculture 
and the restocking of exhausted rivers is the appearance 
of salmon in considerable numbers in rivers running into 
Lake Ontario; from the south. Persons whose memories 
go back forty or fifty years recollect distinctly when sal- 
mon were more or less abundant in the Salmon, the 
Oswego and other rivers which they ascended to spawn. 
The building of dams destroyed the salmon fisheries. At 
very rare intervals within the past twenty-five years an 
occasional salmon has been taken by the net fishermen 
in Lake Ontario, but within that time such a thing as a 
run of salmon in any of these streams has been absolutely 
unknown. Nevertheless, for some days past large num- 
bers of salmon have been seen jumping and playing in 
Salmon River, in Oswego county, N. Y. The fish are seen 
below the, dam at the Box desk works, and are stopped 
by this dam, which they . constantly try to ascend. A 
number have been caught and are said to weigh from 
eight to ten pounds. An effort will be made to make 
some changes in the dam, which it is hoped will permit 
the fish to ascend. The appearance of these fish should 
afford great encouragement to those interested in restock- 
ing our old salmon streams. It will be very interesting 
to know from what plant these came. 
Charles F. Imbrie, of the firm of Abbey & Tmbrie, died 
at his home in this city, last Friday, Nov. 3, aged fifty- 
one years. Mr, Imbrie had an acquaintance with anglers 
the country over, and the announcement of his death will 
be received with widespread regret. In business life he 
was known as /an enei^etic and successful man, with' 
varied interests ; arid his many-sidedness is well illustrated' 
by the fact that he found recreation in such diverse fieldsi 
as the practice of angling and the study of politica| 
economy. 'J>a 
